Goldfield history

The hotel was built starting in 1907 at the enormous sum of around $400,000.

In 1908 many of the district's mines that had been operated on a leasing system were consolidated by the Goldfield Consolidated Mining Company, which built a hundred-stamp mill northeast of town.

In 1910 the production of ore reached an all-time high, valued at more than $11 million.

By 1911, Gold Fields had quietly disposed of its Lena share, using the profit on the sale to help replenish the reserves depleted by purchases in the Americas and elsewhere.

Nonetheless, by 1918 the Gold Fields' reserves and its Lena profits had disappeared, and the company faced hard times.

Temporary relief was obtained in 1919 when all South African mining companies were allowed to sell their output on the free market, earning a premium of about 16 shillings per ounce.

The company hit its lowest depths in 1922, as even Robinson Deep and Simmer and Jack profits declined, and the entire industry was affected by the major white miners' strike, the Rand Rebellion.

The History of Goldfield The Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad Goldfield’s Building Boom The Devastating Fire of July 6, 1923

By 1929, it was sufficiently attractive for a European group to offer to buy up all the issued shares, and Gold Fields and GFADC made a profit on the deal.

Gold Fields also participated in Bulolo Gold Dredging, formed in 1930 to work alluvial gold in Papua New Guinea.

West Witwatersrand Areas Ltd. was formed in 1932 to work the new field.

A relatively little-known and not particularly successful Australian venture was the Gold Exploration and Finance Company of Australia (GEFCA), established in 1934.

Union Corporation's diversification into the manufacturing industry started in earnest in 1936-37 with the formation of the paper company Sappi in the East Rand town of Springs.

Significant discoveries in 1937 of gold along the Obuasi fissure and other locations gave rise to a time of great optimism at Ashanti.

By October 1939, when the first West Rand ores were being milled, Gold Fields was once again on a sound financial footing.

The industry had been cut off from foreign investment since 1942, and many mines that had opened shortly after the war found that they could not sustain themselves, and quickly closed.

The first shaft was sunk at St Helena, which became the first mine to produce gold in the Orange Free State, in 1947.

In 1949, GEFCA was transferred to Australia and absorbed by the Western Mining Corporation, previously a GEFCA subsidiary.

In 1951 came the discovery of the Evander gold field, over which Union Corporation had sole control.

In 1956, New Consolidated Canadian Exploration Company was established in Toronto and New Consolidated Gold Fields (Australasia) in Sydney.

In 1957, the British Parliament granted Ghana its independence, and Kwame Nkrumah became the country’s first prime minister.

In 1959, a major restructuring led to the re-emergence of the name Gold Fields of South Africa, reorganized as a Johannesburg-based company which controlled all the company's African assets.

In 1960, a new constitution was drafted, and the country became the Republic of Ghana, with Nkrumah as its president.

In 1964, the company merged with Strathmore Consolidated Investments and came to control two mines on Klerksdorp gold field--Stilfontein and Buffelsfontein.

Lonrho acquired Ashanti in 1968 for £3 million (US$2.1 million) in stock, promising to preserve Ashanti as a separate entity.

In 1969, Goldfield was dubbed by Time Magazine as “One of the fastest growing and most aggressive conglomerates.”

He retained the title of chairman, but, after expressing much dissatisfaction with the increased government involvement with Ashanti, resigned in 1971.

Despite the turbulent times, Ashanti continued to prosper, reaching a peak production level of 533,000 ounces in 1972.

Cronjé, Suzanne, Margaret Ling, and Gillian Cronjé, The Lonrho Connections: A Multinational and Its Politics in Africa, Encino, Calif.: Bellwether Books, 1976.

Approximately 50 percent of net income came from industrial interests in the fiscal year 1977-78.

In 1978, 56 percent of Union Corporation's assets were in minerals, including 33 percent in gold.

In the early 1980’s, Goldfield continued its mining activities with the development of the St Cloud silver mine in New Mexico with the participation of the Nelson Bunker Hunt Family.

Profits continued to fall, and in 1982, the company experienced the first operating loss in its history.

But by 1983, the government realized that outside capital would be needed to achieve its goal of rebuilding Ghana’s economy, so the political stance shifted to welcome a more free-market philosophy.

While the 1984-85 period was a difficult one for the South African economy, Gencor's particular difficulties were compounded by an identity crisis.

In 1985, Ashanti was granted a £159 million (US$111 million) IMF loan, and the new Minerals and Mining Law allowed Ashanti to keep 45 percent of its export earnings.

The report served as a spur to change, but the man to whom it fell to implement this, Derek Keys, appointed executive chairman in April 1986, had no background in mining, having come from the industrial group Malbak.

Another important event was the publication in 1988 of the Gencor mission, a brief statement of the group's fundamental corporate goals, which went a long way toward clarifying to the public and to its employees what Gencor stood for.

The first was the formation of General Mining Metals and Minerals Limited (Genmin) in March 1989.

Beginning in 1990-91, the company supplied water resources such as hand pumps, boreholes, and hand-dug wells for the Obuasi township and 137 smaller villages and townships.

Holder of the majority of Ashanti shares, the Ghanaian government in 1994 announced its plan to sell 17.9 million shares—a full half of its 55 percent stake—in a share flotation on the London and Ghana stock exchanges.

In 1995, Alusaf began operating the mammoth Hillside Aluminum Smelter, which, when combined with the upgrade of a smaller Alusaf facility, nearly doubled Africa's production of the metal.

In 1996, Ashanti became the first African-operated company to list on the New York Stock Exchange.

Ayensu, Edward S., Ashanti Gold: The African Legacy of the World’s Most Precious Metal, Accra, Ghana: Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited, 1997.

“Ghana,” Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, Redmond, Wash.: Microsoft Corporation, 1999.

Geita opened in August of 2000, three months ahead of schedule, and was the largest gold mine in Tanzania.

In November 2001, St Ives and Agnew Gold Mines was added to the company's holdings.

Goldfield divested its last mining vestige with the sale in 2002 of its remaining mining properties in New Mexico.

In June 2003, Gold Fields enacted its first Black Economic Empowerment transaction when it allowed Mvelaphanda Resources Ltd., an empowerment consortium representing HDSAs, to acquire a 15 percent beneficial interest in its South African assets.